Anne Quinn Welsh Honors Faculty Fellow, Villanova University

Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship

Selected Participant, National Science Foundation/UMBC ADVANCE Faculty Horizons workshop for aspiring STEM faculty

Smithsonian Marine Station Link Fellowship

Member of NASA Climate Adaptation Science Investigators Group

Board of Directors, Soil Ecology Society 

Christmas Tree Farms and Soil Carbon Storage: A North American Carbon Program (NACP) Affiliated Project

Smithsonian Marine Science Network

Editorial Board Member, Ecology; Journal of Ecology

Mangrove trees outperform saltmarsh grasses in building elevation but collapse rapidly under high rates of sea-level rise

Nitrogen Addition Increases Freeze Resistance in Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans) Shrubs in a Temperate-Tropical Ecotone

Impacts and effects of ocean warming on tidal marsh and tidal freshwater forest ecosystems

Impacts of soil nitrogen and carbon additions on forest understory communities with a long nitrogen deposition history

Mangrove range expansion rapidly increases coastal wetland carbon storage

Villanova University was founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine. To this day, Villanova’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. Villanova prepares students to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.


The strength of the Villanova experience comes in part from the University’s welcoming community. All members are bonded together by a shared responsibility to uphold the ideals of Saint Augustine and let the principles of truth, unity and love guide their lives. The Villanova community helps students grow intellectually, professionally and spiritually, and challenges them to reach their full potential.


The University’s rigorous academic experience, rooted in the liberal arts, forms an environment in which students and professors are partners in learning. The Villanova community is dedicated to providing a personalized experience that fosters every student’s intellectual and spiritual well-being. As part of their education, students are encouraged to enrich their own lives by working for those in need. Through academic and service programs, students use their knowledge, skills and compassion to better the world around them.


There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s six colleges—the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. These colleges are the setting for an experience that develops both the heart and the mind, and creates the atmosphere where students are called to ignite change.


Villanova University is located in a suburban community 12 miles west of Philadelphia, Pa.

Villanova University

Climate change, encroaching development, and accelerating environmental degradation of natural habitats pose a serious threat to an increasing number of plant and animal species. Dr. Chapman researches and can discuss leading issues on coastal climate change and possible solutions to biodiversity loss.

Coastal Ecosystems

Wetlands

Biodiversity Loss

Climate change effects on coastal wetlands

Invasive Species

Carbon Storage and Sequestration

Climate Change

Ecology

Google Scholar

Chapman Research Page

Mangrove Trees Are on the Move, Taking the Tropics with Them

Mangroves common in South Florida are moving north

Beached whales, disappearing crabs—what’s happening to our oceans?

Scientists say mangroves have important role in combatting climate change

Protecting the world's wetlands: 5 essential reads

Global Warning

Villanova mangrove expansion and climatic warming

Villanova researcher Samantha Chapman at research site on Merritt Island, FL

The influence of mangrove invasion and rising temperatures on belowground processes in coastal ecosystems

Mangroves marching northward: the impacts of rising seas and temperatures on ecosystems at Kennedy Space Center

Interactions of invasive insects, wildfire and climate change: Mechanisms, processes and adaptations on forest productivity, composition and decline

Manipulating plant and microbial resource environment to optimize oil degradation in coastal marshes

Christmas Trees and Soil Carbon Storage: Maximizing Ecosystem Management and Sustainability in A Future Carbon Economy

assessing-bidens-green-infrastructure-plan-from-a-climate-perspective

Professor of Biology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

In a virtual climate summit attended by leaders from all over the globe, President Joseph Biden announced plans for the United States to cut carbon emissions by as much as 52% by the year 2030. This commitment was outlined in what the Biden administration is calling a "green infrastructure" bill, one that has echoes of the Obama-era Green New Deal. 

Samantha Chapman, PhD, a biology professor at Villanova University and co-director of the Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, recently broke down the pros and cons of the bill with KYW Newsradio's Matt Leon. According to Dr. Chapman, the bill addresses what she identifies as the two major strategies for mitigating the negative effects of our warming planet: "preventing more climate change and adapting to climate change."

Dr. Chapman considers that the strength of the bill lies in what she and Matt Leon refer to as "base hits" rather than the "home run" structure of the Green New Deal, meaning that Biden's plan relies on smaller, easily achievable goals—like incentivizing a switch to a more sustainable type of cement for building bridges—rather than sweeping reform in an effort to get the bill passed. 

Dr. Chapman calls the improvement of the power grid, which would support the manufacturing of electric cars and ease our nation's reliance on fossil fuels, "one of the biggest things in the bill." The professor also notes that she is hopeful about the installation of broadband in remote areas allowing for wider internet access and investment in energy-efficient affordable housing and job training to support communities that rely on the fossil fuel industries. "You can't just shut these people's livelihoods down and say 'okay, good luck' or just give them a payout. People want to have jobs that fulfill them," says Dr. Chapman.

This direction, focusing on infrastructure with climate and equity at the center of the conversation, is in line with the Biden campaign's slogan to "build back better." Dr. Chapman points out that this bill creates an opportunity to focus on the word "better" by reevaluating the definition of infrastructure itself. "What is infrastructure?" she asks. "Is clean air infrastructure? Is clean water infrastructure? We know that natural infrastructures [feedback systems like our waterways and forests]—and we still have a lot of them in the U.S., thankfully—give us a buffer against climate change."

As a climate scientist specializing in coastal ecosystems, Dr. Chapman told Leon she hopes to see an emphasis on these types of natural infrastructures. "I think that salt marshes and mangroves are really important in buffering our coast against big storms, so I want to see explicitly that we are going restore these places. It would be good for biodiversity; it would be good for people hanging out and kayaking; and it would help us protect against these big storms that are coming whether or not we cap our emissions. I think I would like to see more of these green barriers along our coast rather than big seawalls, and I haven't seen that exactly yet, but again the fine print's not there," she points out. "The bill's not done."

Finally, Dr. Chapman spoke to how this infrastructure bill could have an impact on the future of the country if it is passed and observed. "I think there's still work to do on things like forests and biodiversity; there's always more work to do. I think it would be a massive step in the right direction. And then we'd have to go to the rest of the world and start doing some work there."



Assessing Biden's "Green Infrastructure" Plan From a Climate Perspective

how-the-biden-administration-can-help-save-the-planet

With the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as the 46th president of the United States came a slew of executive orders—and perhaps most notably America's reentry into the Paris Climate Accord. After the Obama administration joined the largest global cooperative agreement to limit the emission of dangerously climate-altering greenhouse gasses in 2015, the U.S. withdrew in 2017 under former president Donald Trump.

 
Villanova University biology professor Samantha Chapman, PhD, studies how "blue carbon" solutions, like the restoration of wetlands, can contribute to slowing the harmful impact of climate change on the planet. Recently, Dr. Chapman broke down the top three things the Biden administration must do to save the planet, since we are, as she puts it, "close to some scary tipping points."

#1: Pressure Brazil’s President Bolsonaro to stop the devastation of the Amazon. "The Amazon Rainforest regulates our global climate. It is imperative that through diplomacy and aid, we incentivize developing countries to preserve their intact lands and biodiversity. We can't do this without helping local communities incentivize the people living in these places to save these lands. Road building in forests is a huge cause of our planet's downward slope."

#2: Invest in restoration of natural ecosystems. "We must invest resources into coastal wetlands and forests, here and abroad. USAID could be partially retooled in partnership with the United Stated Geological Survey (USGS), which already does this. These natural ecosystems will serve as natural climate solutions and be harbors for threatened species and nice places for humans to recreate. We must restore the opportunity for nature to re-invoke the necessary feedbacks that make the ecosystems work. Sometimes this involves complicated engineering, sometimes it is simpler and means giving nature space to restore. We're trying both."

#3: Find ways to make people feel connected to land and nature—and value it. "This is a vague one and not one that I'm sure any administration can do. The pandemic has given me hope on this—I see so many more people out hiking, fishing, walking, and hanging out in parks. When time comes for voting on taxes, people have to remember that these state parks and preserves and even neighborhood parks cost money to staff and preserve. The U.S. has incredible land and nature and yet, in my experience, Americans value and understand it less than other countries. Some of that has to do with our frontier history. We can learn from Native Americans. Appointing Representative Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior is one good step the Biden administration has taken in this direction."

Dr. Chapman emphasizes that despite the uphill battle ahead, she remains hopeful. "Left to heal and helped to heal, the ecosystem processes that sustain our lives and those of the other amazing organisms on our planet can be restored," she notes. "Good things are happening. They just need to happen at a much larger scale."



How the Biden Administration Can Help Save the Planet

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